It was a somber Thanksgiving for a handful of families in Jefferson Parish after a pair of accidental shootings left a 9-year-old boy dead, a 12-year-old girl in critical condition and four other minors, including an 11-year-old girl, behind bars for firing the weapons involved.

George Elmore, 9, was shot in the head Wednesday evening while in the back bedroom of his home at 1212 Lincoln Ave. in Marrero. His 15-year-old uncle and a 16-year-old Marrero boy were handling a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol that George's uncle bought "on the street, " according to Col. John Fortunato, spokesman for the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.

George was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after he arrived.

About an hour earlier in East Jefferson, a 15-year-old Kenner boy found a gun behind an apartment complex at 209 Marion Court in River Ridge, according to Sgt. Larry Dyess, another spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

The teen was showing the gun inside of 12-year-old Karin Brown's first-floor apartment when an 11-year-old girl grabbed the pistol. It discharged, striking Karin. She was still in critical condition on Thursday at an unidentified hospital, Dyess said.

The 11-year-old girl and the 15-year-old boy were taken into custody and booked with negligent injury. The teen was also booked with illegal possession of a handgun by a juvenile, Dyess said.

In the Marrero shooting, George Elmore's uncle was booked with negligent homicide. Both the uncle and the 16-year-old boy were booked with illegal possession of a handgun by a juvenile.

The older teen also was booked with obstruction of justice because he took the pistol and fled the Lincoln Avenue home after the shooting, authorities said. He hid it in a backyard barbecue pit two streets over in the 1100 block of Cohen Street, Fortunato said. That gun and the one used in the River Ridge shooting were recovered by detectives.

All four suspects were booked at Rivarde Juvenile Detention Center in Harvey. They have not been identified because of their ages.

Both homes were deserted Thursday afternoon. But on the night of the shootings, authorities said, a man and woman were inside the Marrero house. Dyess said they were relatives of the victim and his uncle.

There were no adults inside the River Ridge apartment Wednesday when Karin Brown was shot, Dyess said.

The Sheriff's Office does not intend to charge any adult in connection with the shootings, he said.

"None of the adults involved knew that children brought guns from off the street into their homes, " Dyess said. "They weren't negligent as far as we've determined."